Last of the Independents
Vancouver Noir
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4.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
2015 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize — Winner, Mystery • 2015 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence Best First Novel — Nominated • Unhanged Arthur Award — Winner, Best Unpublished First Crime Novel
What do a necrophile, a missing boy, and an unsavoury P.I. have in common? Private detective Michael Drayton is about to find out….
Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Drayton runs a private investigation agency in Vancouver that specializes in missing persons — only, as Mike has discovered, some missing people stay with you. Still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of a young girl, Mike is hired to find the vanished son of a local junk merchant. However, he quickly discovers that the case has been damaged by a crooked private eye and dismissed by a disinterested justice system. Worse, the only viable lead involves a drug-addicted car thief with gang connections.
As the stakes rise, Mike attempts to balance his search for the junk merchant’s son with a more profitable case involving a necrophile and a funeral home, while simultaneously struggling to keep a disreputable psychic from bilking the mother of a missing girl.
Customer Reviews
A Fresh New Vancouver Voice
I'm not a regular reader of crime fiction, but in "Last Of The Independents" Sam Wiebe locates a mix of insight, action, and wit which should appeal to die-hards as well as trainspotters like myself. Wiebe's themes are certainly heavy ones (we're ill-equipped to deal with death and worse equipped to deal with uncertainty), but these are interwoven with snappy dialogue and well-drawn characters. The discontinuity between these two makes for a sometimes abruptly dynamic reading experience, but that's exactly the sort of duality PI Michael Drayton tries to impart to his readers and friends: detective work is utterly mundane and day-to-day, until suddenly it isn't. On a similar note, as a Vancouverite I loved reading a novel that cast my city in a light that was both familiar and utterly alien. The streets and parks read exactly as they are, yet are connected to a world few of us (thankfully) experience. A fantastic debut.